Buying a Nexus 5 Phone at Sprint? Read This First

If you are looking to buy the new Google Nexus 5 smartphone, it pays to shop around, especially if you use Sprint.

Google is selling the base model of the new device, available next week, for about $350 while some Sprint customers that aren’t on contract and want to upgrade have to pay $450. The pre-order page of Sprint’s website for the phone also lists the “regular price” of the phone as $450.

We stumbled upon this disparity when a WSJ colleague was looking to upgrade from an earlier Nexus but isn’t quite out of contract. It appears he can easily upgrade to the phone and save $100 by buying it from Google directly.

A Sprint spokeswoman didn’t have an explanation for the price difference. She said customers can get the phone for $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and signing a two-year contract or finance it for $18.75 a month through Sprint’s One Up upgrade plan.

“Our channel partners have the ability to set their own pricing,” she said.